Biden Administration Announces Steps to Ramp Up COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

President Joe Biden announced today several measures aimed at ramping up coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination efforts, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses for the United States.

According to a statement released by the White House, the administration is working to acquire another 100 million doses of each of the 2 FDA-authorized vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna as part of its strategy to boost vaccination supply.

“This increases the total vaccine order for the US by 50%, from 400 million to 600 million with these additional doses expected to deliver this summer,” according to the statement. The COVID-19 Response Coordinator will work with the Department of Health and Human Services to increase total vaccine supply for Americans, which Biden says will allow for 300 million Americans to be vaccinated by the end of this summer.

The efforts are intended to support Biden’s comprehensive National Action Strategy, in which the administration has set a goal of administering 100 million vaccines in 100 days.

In addition, the administration is working to increase the weekly vaccine supply from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses to states, tribes, and territories, which the administration said “will allow millions more Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated.”

The administration is also making an effort to increase transparency by offering 3-week supply look-ahead estimates, as opposed to the previous 1-week look-ahead.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) recently issued a statement in support of Biden’s national strategy and called on the administration to engage community pharmacies in COVID-19 vaccination strategies.

“We’ve shared with the administration how, when engaged by local health departments, community pharmacies are successfully battling the COVID-19 disease,” NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA, said in a statement. “As demonstrated in the success of vaccine rollout plans in places like West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alaska, small business independent pharmacies must be included in COVID-19 immunization strategies, whether federal or local, if those plans are to be realized.”

Reference

Fact Sheet: President Biden Announces New Steps to Boost Vaccine Supply and Increase Transparency for States, Tribes, and Territories. Statement. The White House; January 26, 2021. Accessed January 26, 2021. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/26/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-steps-to-boost-vaccine-supply-and-increase-transparency-for-states-tribes-and-territories/